On 5/9/10, Jennifer Raybourn
We had a good day today in India. We arrived late since we missed our transfer in Frankfurt (we were re-routed through Dubai). So instead of visiting co-workers' homes as we had planned we spent most of the day sleeping. We got up around 5, walked around the hotel, sat outside by the pool, and had a nice dinner in the hotel. Tomorrow the prep work starts in earnest so we're calling it an early night tonight.
We had fun and are enjoying ourselves.
On 5/11/10, Jennifer Raybourn
Monday was kind of a waste. We were picked up at 10, driven in to the office for some rather lame discussions and reviews of policy which we were already familiar with, then lunch in the cafeteria. They weren't ready to take us out to look at houses but offerred to drive us around and look at "neighborhoods". We didn't really see the point in that. So we came back to the hotel and hung out. Then we went to an American's house after work to check it out and get some really good advice from him and his wife. Back to the hotel by 10 or so for a late dinner.
We slept in til 8. Getting ready now for breakfast and a 10 start on house hunting. Will take lots of photos.
From: Jennifer Raybourn
Date: Tue, 11 May 2010 10:45:55 +0530
Subject: Re: Day two
Should have mentioned that we are both still very upbeat today. Looking forward to house hunting.
From: Jennifer Raybourn
Date: Wed, May 12, 2010 at 9:48 PM
Subject: Days 3 and 4
Sorry I didn't send a day 3 update. We looked at 18 places yesterday - apartments in the city (as it were) and houses further out. Of course the further we drove the bigger the houses and yards got. Towards the end we were looking at 5 bedroom/5 bathrooms joints with pools, landscaped yards, separate servants' homes. We ended the day rather giddy with the prospect. Came back to the hotel in time for happy hour and reviewed all our notes, photos, and made our top 4 list.
You will need to see the photos to see that large isn't necessarily nice. And what you can and can't expect to find in an Indian house (like, kitchens are for servants so are not very nice or even air conditioned). But those details are more than I can enter on this keyboard.
Today we looked at about 8 more houses. These were not as nice as what we saw yesterday so none made our top 4.
Agreed with our logistics guy to visit our top 4 tomorrow, derive a final ranking with lists of "demands" for each place (like we want it painted) then will go talk to landlords. So tomorrow at this time we might have our home finalized. Will send you photos then. Trust that you will have a room and a pool when you visit! And you might be able to see the ocean from the property.
We've also selected a lease vehicle (a big SUV), been advised who our driver, doctor and vets should be, found a good local restaurant (Clay's huge lunch yesterday was $2), met some of the other US employees here, gotten more paperwork to finalize our visas, looked at hotels I can stay at while we wait for our stuff to arrive, and generally learned lots. And did I mention we sweated about 5 gallons each day- it is HOT here!
Misc photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/jennifer.raybourn/IndiaHouseHuntingChampagneOnEveryPlaneAndStreetScenes
Our two top houses:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jennifer.raybourn/IndiaHouseChoice1
http://picasaweb.google.com/jennifer.raybourn/IndiaHouseChoice2
From: Jennifer Raybourn
Date: Thu, May 13, 2010 at 10:10 PM
Subject: Re: Days 3 and 4
We haven't finalized our house yet. We went out to revisit our top 3 today, one of which we hadn't been able to view fully the other day. We quickly knocked that one of the list then spent about 10 minutes deciding which to get. Went to the owners house and he wanted about 20% more than our allowance and wouldn't budge. So we went to the second and made an offer. Right now we are waiting to hear back from both to see what they will take. We should have a decision later tonight or tomorrow AM. Then all we need to do is a quick visit to the office and we are done for the week.
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